Watched Città violenta yesterday. A solid and entertaning Sollima film with Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas both in good form. I like the way the story plays out. Great atmosphere in this one, caused by powerful images and a very good Morricone score. One of the more refined Italian crime flicks I’ve seen so far.
[quote=“Bad Lieutenant, post:221, topic:376”]Watched Città violenta yesterday. A solid and entertaning Sollima film with Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas both in good form. I like the way the story plays out. Great atmosphere in this one, caused by powerful images and a very good Morricone score. One of the more refined Italian crime flicks I’ve seen so far.[/quote]The last scene in the elevator is awesome, best scene Sollima has ever made IMO.
Jill Ireland is sexy as hell in Violent City.
For those who are interested blue underground will be releasing High Crime early 2008.
[quote=“me, post:224, topic:376”]For those who are interested blue underground will be releasing High Crime early 2008.[/quote]Finally! This is good news! 
I familiari delle vittime non saranno avvertiti (1972, Alberto de Martino)
Specifications
Label: Dollar-DVD (Brentwood Communications); released in 2004
Title: Crime Boss
Region: 0
Format: Widescreen
Audio: English
Subtitles: None
Running time: 1h37min56s (cut)
The DVD
The disc comes in a cheap cardboard sleeve. The artwork, if you can call it that, looks unprofessional and is downright ugly. To make it seem a bit more appealing Lee Van Cleef’s name and pictured are slapped on it. Lee Van Cleef is NOT in this movie. When you push play in the main menu, you’ll find out quickly that the first two minutes (or so) are missing. The opening titles are almost over when the movie ‘starts’. The movie also ends rather abruptly during the closing credits. If you wish to know what actors are in this movie, you can’t use this disc to look it up. The movie suffers from various types of print damage, one of which -a constant stream of red blemishes- leads me to believe the source material is a somewhat battered VHS tape. However, the movie is presented in widescreen; probably in its original aspect ratio. The aspect ratio more or less makes up for the lesser print quality. It is pretty ‘watchable’, mainly considering the fact I’ve seen far worse. Besides that, my expectations weren’t that high. The label that released it is called Dollar-DVD. Go figure. The audio is muffled in a lot of places, making it harder to follow dialogue. Cranking up the volume helps though. There is only an English language track. The dubbing is pretty bad. Luckily Telly Savalas’ real voice is used. Apart from chapter selection the disc has no extras.
The movie
Director Alberto de Martino gives us a crime drama ridden with cliches. Crime Boss offers a story about a young, ambitious gangster (Antonio Sabato) trying to move up in a crime organization led by Telly Savalas. The two develop a father/son relationship quickly. That almost happens out of the blue and is totally unconvincing. Sabato’s mediocre acting isn’t beneficial either. Savalas does a routine job as the Don. Nevertheless he is by far the best actor in the movie. Of course there is also a part for a lady. Paola Tedesco plays the Don’s niece, and does a decent job even though her character could have easily been left out. The movie meanders in predictable fashion. Not a whole lot happens. The sporadic crime elements in it (fist fights, shooting etc.) manage to keep it from getting too boring. Joe D’Amato’s cinematography is solid, stripped from costly lavishness. In other words: The cheapness of this production gives it a grittier feel. Francesco De Masi provides a good score, as usual. It adds to the atmosphere as it should. The final shootout at the clinic felt obligatory, but managed to satisfy me to a certain extent. All in all however, this is a forgettable crime flick that I can solely recommend to the Italian b-movie fan.
Rating: 5/10
Source:
After Crime Boss (see my review above) I watched the BU release of The big racket. Very violent for a Castellari movie, with lots of sadistic stuff and elaborate shootouts. It’s a typical mindless, Deathwish like, actioner. But a very entertaining one (because of said violence).
[quote=“me, post:224, topic:376”]For those who are interested blue underground will be releasing High Crime early 2008.[/quote]about time they got it sorted
Just finished watching Italia a mano armata / A Special Cop in Action, last film in Maurizio Merli’s Inspector Betti trilogy. This film kicks ass! There’s so much top quality action scenes, car chases and shooting. And the Music! Soundtrack by Franco Micalizzi must be my favorite crime-soundtrack, so great stuff which accompanys action scenes perfectly.
Maybe not as good as second Betti film Napoli violenta by Lenzi but definitely one of the best.
Sounds pretty decent!.. will have to put on my shopping list for January.
I believe there’s no dvd release yet. The version I watched was tv-recording with fandubbed english audio.
Cheers thanks for letting me know.
StopGap has got a bootleg version of it:
[url]http://www.freewebs.com/stopgapdvd/sgdvdc005.htm[/url]
Watched Almost Human with Tomas Milian in the leading role as a leader of a small group (trio). Also starring Ray Lovelock as one of the three and Henry Silva as the policemen chasing them as they kidnap a girl and demand ransom. Extremely bloody, Milian playing the meanest son of a bitch I’ve seen in a long time. Recommended but you will take some punches a long the way.
Has anybody seen Gli Intoccabili aka Machine Gun McCain?
Machine Gun McCain
An excellent crime drama that is ruthless,violent & downbeat.A very good main cast
of John Cassavettes,Peter Falk, Britt Ekland & Gabriele Ferzetti who’s characters
keep the storyline interesting the full length.
[quote=“violentprofessional, post:236, topic:376”]Machine Gun McCain
An excellent crime drama that is ruthless,violent & downbeat.A very good main cast
of John Cassavettes,Peter Falk, Britt Ekland & Gabriele Ferzetti who’s characters
keep the storyline interesting the full length.[/quote]
So, how/where did you see it? I haven’t seen it on ebay. Is there a dvd? Because it looks very interesting.
The source is a VHS from a large crime collection a person was practically giving away
that appeared on Ebay earlier in the year.
An excellent crime film not to be missed is The Outside Man '72.Jean Louis Trintignant
as a French contract hit man brought into LA by a crime family to take out the head
of another crime family.Roy Scheider another hitman is cold & calculating.The cast is
rounded out with the stunning Ann Margaret,the provacative Angie Dickinson & the
relaible Michel Constantin has a cameo but effective role.